Reinstalling Winxp-pro problems - NO VALID PARTITION???

  • Thread starter Thread starter DrB
  • Start date Start date
D

DrB

Spent many hours trying to format a new Western Digital 320GB hard drive in
son's PC and finally put it into my other PC to run Western Digital Tools to
partition it for the full 320gb. Formatted it to NTFS in same step. Sure was
a lot faster than using Windows. Copied to the new drive the WinXP setup
files with SP2 slipstreamed into it.

However after installing into my son's new computer and running Bart's PE
Builder v3110a to get a windows environment, since my corporate WinXp-Pro
without SP1 or SP2 is not bootable, I went into the I386 and found no files
were viewable, even though all other folders had their files. So I just type
in WinNT32.exe and windows started but came up with error that "no valid
system partitions wee found. Setup is unable to continue". What did I do
wrong?

I was able to find the I386 folder files by running A43 Environment. Running
WinNT32.exe from there comes up with same error message.

I do have a WinME bootable floppy but when I do that it can not see the big
HD, probably since it is 320GB and formatted in NTFS. If I have to use this
way of booting should I format a small portion in FAT32 and would it be
viewable then?
 
DrB said:
Spent many hours trying to format a new Western Digital 320GB hard
drive in son's PC and finally put it into my other PC to run
Western Digital Tools to partition it for the full 320gb. Formatted
it to NTFS in same step. Sure was a lot faster than using Windows.
Copied to the new drive the WinXP setup files with SP2 slipstreamed
into it.
However after installing into my son's new computer and running
Bart's PE Builder v3110a to get a windows environment, since my
corporate WinXp-Pro without SP1 or SP2 is not bootable, I went into
the I386 and found no files were viewable, even though all other
folders had their files. So I just type in WinNT32.exe and windows
started but came up with error that "no valid system partitions wee
found. Setup is unable to continue". What did I do wrong?

I was able to find the I386 folder files by running A43
Environment. Running WinNT32.exe from there comes up with same
error message.
I do have a WinME bootable floppy but when I do that it can not see
the big HD, probably since it is 320GB and formatted in NTFS. If I
have to use this way of booting should I format a small portion in
FAT32 and would it be viewable then?
Click to expand...

Please continue with your original thread(s)...

http://groups.google.com/groups/pro...AB25T0u7hpZNO4GIqLYIvYQANzlI28YMOqJoqdK4hA-xw

Your 'corporate' version does not exist. If you have what you claim to
have - it is not legitimate. If you are just not understanding what you are
saying and you have an OEM recovery CD/DVD - it is not a tru installation
medium anyway - it is some method your OEM put together.

It has been suggested you use the boot floppies to legitimately boot and
then install.

320GB is far below any limit Windows XP SP1 or above has for
recognizing/formatting/utiolizing hard disk drives.

Good luck.
 
It must be legit since windows update authenticates it every so often.

Problem solve by another who instructed me to create a bootable CD with my
WinXP slip streamed with SP2. It is now successfully loading the files onto
the full 320gb drive.
 
DrB said:
It must be legit since windows update authenticates it every so
often.
Click to expand...

No - just because it works does not mean it is legitimate - it means it is
slipping through the cracks.
It's good you fixed your problem.

(Did you PURCHASE your license for Windows XP?)
 
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